What history becomes under the full sway of
the imagination may be seen in the "History of the French Revolution,"
by Thomas Carlyle, at once a true picture, a philosophical revelation, a
noble poem.
There is a wonderful passage about _Time_ in Shakespere's "Rape of
Lucrece," which shows how he understood history. The passage is really
about history, and not about time; for time itself does nothing--not
even "blot old books and alter their contents." It is the forces at work
in time that produce all the changes; and they are history. We quote for
the sake of one line chiefly, but the whole stanza is pertinent.
"Time's glory is to calm contending kings,
To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light,
To stamp the seal of time in aged things,
To wake the morn and sentinel the night,
_To wrong the wronger till he render right;_
To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours,
And smear with dust their glittering golden towers."
_To wrong the wronger till he render right._ Here is a historical cycle
worthy of the imagination of Shakespere, yea, worthy of the creative
imagination of our God--the God who made the Shakespere with the
imagination, as well as evolved the history from the laws which that
imagination followed and found out.
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